Zionism

Dame Mary Douglas (1921-2007): The Truth She Told

I don’t think I understood the first thing about Leviticus until I read Purity and Danger by Mary Douglas. She emphasizes that food is a system of communication. She knew that rules, you know, the arbitrary kind that religion traffics in, like: don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t dance, and don’t play cards, are arbitrary on one level but symbolically important on another. She knew that her church, the Catholic Church, made a big mistake after Vatican II when it no longer pushed the “stupid” rules, like not eating meat on Fridays. Rules like that give structure and rhythm to life. Take them away, and you de-structure people’s lives. They end up looking for structure elsewhere. The secret of groups like the Jehovah’s Witnesses lies therein.

Douglas's keen anthropological eye opened up worlds of meaning to which a standard issue Leviticus commentator like Martin_Noth - Noth's contributions lie elsewhere - was oblivious.

The Times of London has a marvelous recap of her life and work. Go here. The obit by Douglas Martin in the New York Times is not all bad either. This graph is worth quoting:

Drawing on her field experience in Africa and expansive reading, [Mary Douglas] saw little difference between “modern” and “primitive” societies, and sometimes drew startling conclusions. In the provocative 1982 book “Risk and Culture: An Essay on the Selection of Technical and Environmental Dangers,” she and Aaron Wildavsky argued that environmentalists’ complaints reflected an antipathy toward dominant social hierarchies. The authors compared environmentalists to religious cults and superstitious groups of the past.

Now you know why Dame Mary made a few enemies. She could spot an unpleasant truth a kilometer away, and delighted in rubbing it in. She destroyed the notion that modern societies mark an advance over primitive ones. For a brief overview of her work and life in her own words, go here.

Mary Douglas Bibliography for Students of the Bible

It’s a mistake to read her works that touch directly on biblical literature only. She herself drew out a mere smidgeon of the implications of her insights for the study of the Bible.

Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. With a new preface by the author. London: Routledge, 2002. Contents: Ritual Uncleanness -- Secular Defilement -- The Abominations of Leviticus -- Magic and Miracle -- Primitive Worlds -- Powers and Dangers -- External Boundaries -- Internal Lines -- The System at War with Itself -- The System Shattered and Renewed.

In the Wilderness: The Doctrine of Defilement in the Book of Numbers. JSOTSup 158. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1993. Contents: The Book of Numbers in the Context of Comparative Religion -- The Politics of Enclaves -- A Priestly Hierarchy -- The Question of Literary Form -- Twelve Sections in the Overall Pattern -- The People of Israel Numbers -- The Laws -- Israel, The Mystic Bride -- Twelve Tribes in Marching Order -- Jacob’s Prophecies: Two Story Rungs -- Israel Defiled, Miriam and Her Brothers -- Balaam and Balak, A Political Satire -- The Land and the Jubilee.

Leviticus as Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Random headings: Analogical versus Rational-Instrumental Thinking -- Logic of the Body -- The Doctrine of Remainders -- No Cult of the Dead -- Knowing When to Make a Private Sacrifice -- Atonement -- The Great Proclamation of Liberty.

Jacob’s Tears, The Priestly Project of Reconciliation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Contents: Counting and Recounting Jacob's Twelve Sons -- Jacob Weeping for Joseph -- Ezra Reduces all Israel to Judah -- Balaam Delivers God's blessings on all Israel -- Problems in Reading the Priestly Books -- The Bodyhouse Cosmogram -- Uncleanness and Taboo draw the Lines of the World -- One God, No Ancestors, in a World Renewed.

Also: The Idea of Purity in Ancient Judaism. By Jacob Neusner. The Haskell Lectures, 1972-1973.. With a Critique and a Commentary by Mary Douglas. Studies in Judaism in Late Antiquity 1. Leiden: Brill, 1973.

Comments

For those who want to explore the possible reasons behind the prohibitions of Leviticus 18, a good place to start is Jacob Milgrom's massive commentary thereto in the Anchor Bible series. See Vol 2:514-593. Milgrom fails to discuss Lev 18:19 in any depth, however (not like him!). But that's because he discusses the matter in exquisite detail in his commentary of Lev 15. See Vol 1:948-953.

Believing is KnowingComments on things like prophecy, predestination, and reward and punishment from an orthodox Jewish perspective, by David Guttmann

Ben Byerly's Blogthoughts on the Bible, Africa, Kenya, aid, and social justice, by Ben Byerly, a PhD candidate at Africa International University (AIU), in Nairobi, Kenya working on “The Hopes of Israel and the Ends of Acts” (Luke’s narrative defense of Paul to Diaspora Judeans in Acts 16-20)

C. OrthodoxyChristian, Contemporary, Conscientious… or Just Confused, by Ken Brown, a very thoughtful blog (archive). Ken is currently a Dr. Theol. student at Georg-August-Universität in Göttingen, part of The Sofja-Kovalevskaja Research Group studying early Jewish Monotheism. His dissertation will focus on the presentation of God in Job.

Catholic Biblesa thoughtful blog about Bible translations by Timothy, who has a degree in sacred theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome (Angelicum) and teaches theology in a Catholic high school in Michigan

Chrisendomirreverent blog with a focus on the New Testament, by Chris Tilling, New Testament Tutor for St Mellitus College and St Paul's Theological Centre, London

Claude Mariottinia perspective on the Old Testament and current events by a professor of Old Testament at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, Chicagoland, Illinois

Codex: Biblical Studies Blogspotby Tyler Williams, a scholar of the Hebrew Bible and cognate literature, now Assistant Professor of Theology at The King's University College in Edmonton, Alberta (archive)

Colours of Scripturereflections on theology, philosophy, and literature, by Benjamin Smith, afflicted with scriptural synaesthesia, and located in London, England

ComplegalitarianA team blog that discusses right ways and wrong ways Scripture might help in the social construction of gender (old archive only; more recent archive, unfortunately, no longer publicly available)

Connected Christianitya place to explore what it might be like if Christians finally got the head, heart, and hands of their faith re-connected (archive)

Conversational TheologySmart and delightful comment by Ros Clarke, a Ph.D. student at the University of the Highlands and Islands, at the (virtual) Highland Theological College (archive)

Daily HebrewFor students of biblical Hebrew and the ancient Near East, by Chip Hardy, a doctoral student at the University of Chicago

Daniel O. McClellana fine blog by the same, who is pursuing a master of arts degree in biblical studies at Trinity Western University just outside of Vancouver, BC.

Davar AkherLooking for alternative explanations: comments on things Jewish and beyond, by Simon Holloway, a PhD student in Classical Hebrew and Biblical Studies at The University of Sydney, Australia

Evedyahuexcellent comment by Cristian Rata, Lecturer in Old Testament of Torch Trinity Graduate School of Theology, Seoul, Korea

Exegetica Digitadiscussion of Logos high-end syntax and discourse tools – running searches, providing the downloads (search files) and talking about what can be done and why it might matter for exegesis, by Mike Heiser

Law, Prophets, and Writingsthoughtful blogging by William R. (Rusty) Osborne, Assistant Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies as College of the Ozarks and managing editor for Journal for the Evangelical Study of the Old Testament

Lingamishdelightful fare by David Ker, Bible translator, who also lingalilngas.

old testament passionGreat stuff from Anthony Loke, a Methodist pastor and Old Testament lecturer in the Seminari Theoloji, Malaysia

Old Testament Pseudepigrapha BlogA weblog created for a course on the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, by James Davila (archive)

On the Main LineMississippi Fred MacDowell's musings on Hebraica and Judaica. With a name like that you can't go wrong.

p.ost an evangelical theology for the age to comeseeking to retell the biblical story in the difficult transition from the centre to the margins following the collapse of Western Christendom, by Andrew Perriman, independent New Testament scholar, currently located in Dubai

PaleoJudaicaby James Davila, professor of Early Jewish Studies at the University of St. Andrews, St Andrews, Scotland. Judaism and the Bible in the news; tidbits about ancient Judaism and its context

Serving the Wordincisive comment on the Hebrew Bible and related ancient matters, with special attention to problems of philology and linguistic anthropology, by Seth L. Sanders, Assistant Professor in the Religion Department of Trinity College, Hartford, CT

Targumanon biblical and rabbinic literature, Christian theology, gadgetry, photography, and the odd comic, by Christian Brady, associate professor of ancient Hebrew and Jewish literature and dean of the Schreyer Honors College at Penn State

The Biblia Hebraica Bloga blog about Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, the history of the Ancient Near East and the classical world, Syro-Palestinian archaeology, early Judaism, early Christianity, New Testament interpretation, English Bible translations, biblical theology, religion and culture, philosophy, science fiction, and anything else relevant to the study of the Bible, by Douglas Magnum, PhD candidate, University of the Free State, South Africa

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